TROY -- The city has proposed to set aside $360,000 in a special revenue fund for the demolition and/or stabilization of vacant buildings.

In an ordinance unanimously approved by the city Council during Thursday night's Finance Committee meeting, the city took $205,000 left over from a federal Business Revolving Loan Fund, which Comptroller Joe Mazzariello said had laid dormant for four years. It also used $95,000 in its Capital Fund used for sidewalk improvements and $60,000 donated from a local law firm, which wants to remain anonymous.

The ordinance will be voted on during the Council's meeting on April 4.

In a memo from Consolidated Planning Program Supervisor Tim Mattice to Mayor Lou Rosamilia and the Council, he said the city owns approximately 100 of the city's 700 vacant buildings. The buildings have not only had a negative impact on the neighborhoods where they are located, Mattice said, but the city as a whole.

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Mattice said the Government Accountability Office said the cost of each building runs at $25,000 a year with many of them being a hot bed for crime or accidental fires. The buildings tie up the resources of the Fire and Police departments as well as lowering value of homes surrounding them, according to Mattice.

"Vacant property and the blight that usually follows have emerged as a crisis in the city," Mattice said in the memo. "The situation is denying the city of desperately needed tax revenues, eroding the value of nearby homes, posing health and safety risks and complicating already challenging neighborhood revitalization efforts."

According to city spokeswoman Jessica Sibley, the demolition projects will be performed by outside contractors with oversight provided by the Engineering Department. She added consideration for stabilization of a building will depend on how much work would need to be done on the building.

"Stabilization will depend on the intensity of the work that will be needed on a case by case basis," Sibley said in an emailed response.

Mayor Lou Rosamilia said he hopes to complete many of the projects within the budget year. As of Friday, no specific buildings had been picked for demolition.